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Short course of psychotherapy relieves lower back pain for three years Wed, 06 Aug 2025 00:30:05 +0100 Just eight sessions of a bespoke form of psychotherapy seems to ease lower back pain even three years later

We can repurpose retired coal plants to produce green energy Tue, 05 Aug 2025 22:00:10 +0100 Piles of dirt can cheaply store renewable energy as heat – and that stored energy can reactivate the machinery of retired coal power plants, letting them provide backup power for the electricity grid

What are the best ways to improve your cognitive reserve? Tue, 05 Aug 2025 20:31:31 +0100 There are three types of cognitive reserve that can protect against decline as we age. Columnist Helen Thomson explores the lifestyle choices that can help you build a more resilient brain – and finds that midlife is a critical time to implement them

These centuries-old equations predict flowing fluid – until they don’t Tue, 05 Aug 2025 19:00:37 +0100 We use the Navier-Stokes equations every day, for applications from building rockets to designing drugs. But sometimes they break – and we don’t know why

Why constipation isn’t just painful, but can lead to serious disease Tue, 05 Aug 2025 17:00:38 +0100 Increasing evidence suggests chronic constipation can be a causal factor in illnesses including cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment. So what can you do to get moving again?

Deep-living microbes could 'eat' energy generated by earthquakes Mon, 04 Aug 2025 23:00:57 +0100 When rocks fracture in underground faults, they generate a variety of chemical compounds that could provide more energy sources for microbes in Earth’s depths

Can we send a spacecraft to intercept interstellar object 3I/ATLAS? Mon, 04 Aug 2025 19:00:47 +0100 Scientists are exploring various proposals to repurpose existing spacecraft in order to chase after the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS and take a closer look – but time is against them

You can lose weight on a diet of ultra-processed food Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:27:18 +0100 People lost weight if they ate an ultra-processed diet that was still based on dietary recommendations

Giant meat-eating dinosaur skulls reveal ‘bone-crushing’ bite Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:00:26 +0100 Differences in the skulls of carnivorous dinosaurs suggest some dinosaurs ripped flesh while others crushed bones

Why mathematicians want to destroy infinity – and may succeed Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:00:02 +0100 Mathematicians who call themselves ultrafinitists think that extremely large numbers are holding back science, from logic to cosmology, and they have a radical plan to do something about it

Vagus nerve stimulation receives US approval to treat arthritis Thu, 31 Jul 2025 21:48:11 +0100 The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a pill-sized device for treating rheumatoid arthritis, marking the first time the therapy has been approved for an autoimmune condition

'Universal' detector spots AI deepfake videos with record accuracy Mon, 04 Aug 2025 13:00:32 +0100 A new detection tool can accurately spot deepfake videos featuring any AI manipulation, from face swaps to completely synthetic AI-generated content

Ozempic really could turn back the clock on your biological age Fri, 01 Aug 2025 08:00:39 +0100 When people were randomised to receive either a placebo or Ozempic, they became biologically younger with the latter drug

This string art game will boost your mathematical imagination Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 Inspired by the work of Victorian mathematician Mary Everest Boole, try making a symmetric curve using string and some hole-punched card, says Peter Rowlett

How to harness your body clock for a longer, healthier life Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:00:46 +0100 Your circadian rhythm influences mood, metabolism and even how well you respond to medical treatment. Now we finally have the tools to harness it to help us live longer and feel better

Archaeologists are unearthing the most powerful women who ever lived Wed, 30 Jul 2025 17:00:59 +0100 Astonishing new archaeological finds and ancient DNA analysis leave no doubt that throughout prehistory women were rulers, warriors, hunters and shamans

Five years later, has sci-fi cult hit Devs aged well? Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 Alex Garland's tech company mystery is smart and compelling, though it can also be chilly and self-indulgent. Bethan Ackerley missed it in 2020, but after five strange years, she has decided to check it out

Is gravity a new type of force that arises from cosmic entropy? Tue, 29 Jul 2025 17:00:27 +0100 Decades ago, a renegade physicist suggested that gravity isn't so much a force as just a byproduct of the universe's tendency to get more disordered. Now this idea might finally be testable

Could we get quantum spookiness even without entanglement? Fri, 01 Aug 2025 20:00:12 +0100 Particles of light travelling through a maze of devices seem to have passed a famous test for entanglement – without being entangled at all

The way we train AIs makes them more likely to spout bull Fri, 01 Aug 2025 18:00:42 +0100 The tendency for AIs to give misleading answers may be in part down to certain training techniques, which encourage models to prioritise perceived helpfulness over accuracy

DNA analysis reveals what really killed Napoleon's army in 1812 Fri, 01 Aug 2025 17:00:30 +0100 At least 300,000 men died during Napoleon’s retreat from Russia - now the latest genetic techniques have identified two pathogens that may have contributed to some of the deaths

Cameras that work like our eyes could give boost to astronomers Fri, 01 Aug 2025 12:00:42 +0100 Neuromorphic cameras, which only record data when a pixel's brightness changes, may be advantageous for capturing extremely bright and dim objects in the same image and tracking fast-moving objects

Our verdict on Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts: A mixed bag Fri, 01 Aug 2025 10:30:28 +0100 The New Scientist Book Club has just finished reading Adam Roberts's novel Lake of Darkness. Some of us loved it – but some of us weren't so sure about this far-future set slice of hard science fiction

What would it feel like to be on a planet spinning out of control? Fri, 01 Aug 2025 10:10:29 +0100 Alex Foster, the author of the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, Circular Motion, on imagining a world that is spinning ever faster

Read an extract from Alex Foster’s sci-fi novel Circular Motion Fri, 01 Aug 2025 10:10:25 +0100 In this passage from the opening of Circular Motion, the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, our protagonist boards a vessel which can circle the world in a matter of hours – with dangerous consequences for the Earth’s rotation

Common artificial sweetener may interfere with cancer treatments Thu, 31 Jul 2025 16:00:26 +0100 People who consume some artificial sweeteners are less likely to respond to certain cancer therapies, potentially because of the impact on their gut microbiome

Fascinating artistic depictions of sea life over millennia Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 Marine biologist Helen Scales's latest book, Ocean Art: From the shore to the deep, celebrates humans' enduring obsession with creatures that live beneath the waves

What would it take to rebuild economics around the natural world? Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 Saving the planet means factoring nature into our economics, argues Partha Dasgupta, in a book with fascinating ideas. But does it take passion to make people listen?

Kamchatka earthquake response shows tsunami warnings are improving Thu, 31 Jul 2025 22:26:28 +0100 After an 8.8-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula, early tsunami warning systems kicked in and helped millions of people safely evacuate

Ageing in the brain may be caused by a breakdown in protein production Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:00:53 +0100 The discovery that brain ageing may be driven by jammed-up protein factories could lead to better ways to help us stay sharp as we get older

E. coli genome has been remade with 101,000 changes to its DNA Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:00:18 +0100 The recoded bacterium uses only 57 of the 64 possible genetic codes, freeing up seven to be used for different purposes

US says CO2 emissions aren’t harmful – climate science shows otherwise Thu, 31 Jul 2025 19:33:38 +0100 The Trump administration is attempting to argue that greenhouses gases don’t endanger people to reverse regulations limiting these harmful emissions – climate scientists are pushing back

Mystery of the potato's origins solved by genetics Thu, 31 Jul 2025 17:00:09 +0100 Around 8 million years ago, an ancestor of modern tomatoes in South America hydridised with a plant called Etuberosum, and this reshuffling of genes gave rise to the potato

How invisibility cloaks could make us disappear – at least from AI Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 In this latest instalment of Future Chronicles, an imagined history of future inventions, Rowan Hooper reveals how invisibility cloaks could become mainstream

Longest lightning ‘mega-flash’ sets a shocking new record Thu, 31 Jul 2025 14:00:47 +0100 A stroke of lighting that lasted more than 7 seconds and flashed across 829 kilometres is officially the longest ever recorded

Critics of de-extinction research hit by mystery smear campaign Thu, 31 Jul 2025 13:38:25 +0100 Several researchers who have been critical of Colossal Biosciences’ plans to revive extinct animals say they have been targeted by online articles trying to discredit them

The best new science fiction books of August 2025 Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:30:26 +0100 From a fresh take on Stephen King’s The Stand to a new novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky set on a poisoned world, August has a bumper crop of new science fiction novels

Jewellery that monitors movement? No, we can't anticipate any problems Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 Feedback foresees a dystopian future in which "smart jewellery" tracks the emotions and motions of its users

Why living in a volatile age may make our brains truly innovative Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 The unpredictability of our times isn't all bad, as it may help us think up some genuine new ideas, says Daniel Yon, author of A Trick of the Mind

Earth's extraordinary deep biosphere is our next great frontier Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 A fantastic alien adventure can be found on our very own planet by studying the microbial life in Earth's crust, according to Karen G. Lloyd's new book Intraterrestrials

Ancient Siberian ice mummy is covered in 'really special' tattoos Thu, 31 Jul 2025 01:01:17 +0100 Tattoos may have been widespread in prehistory, with scientists discovering a plethora of body art on a pastoralist who died in the 3rd or 4th century BC

Human milk could help fight infections that endanger pregnancies Wed, 30 Jul 2025 22:45:09 +0100 The prebiotic properties of human milk could be harnessed to treat a bacterial strain known to cause problems for immunocompromised people – and trigger premature birth

Human trials point the way towards an mRNA vaccine against HIV Wed, 30 Jul 2025 20:00:22 +0100 We may be a step closer to a highly effective mRNA vaccine against HIV, but tests so far reveal that the approach can cause unpleasant skin reactions

Let a breakthrough in measuring body clocks ease the ills of shiftwork Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 New tests to gauge an individual's circadian rhythms could be put to good use helping night workers fend off the ill effects of their unsocial hours

How life thrives in one of the most hostile environments on Earth Wed, 30 Jul 2025 17:00:53 +0100 Creatures that lurk more than 9000 metres deep in the Pacific Ocean get their nutrients from a surprising source

Extra-hard hexagonal diamonds can now be grown in a lab Wed, 30 Jul 2025 17:00:27 +0100 Hexagonal diamond up to 60 per cent stronger than normal diamonds could be used to create super-tough drilling and cutting tools for industrial applications

Covid-19 and flu may reawaken dormant cancer cells in the lungs Wed, 30 Jul 2025 17:00:23 +0100 Mice with a handful of cancerous cells in their lungs experienced a 100-fold increase to this number after being infected with swine flu

New-to-science stick insect is the heaviest ever found in Australia Wed, 30 Jul 2025 16:00:32 +0100 A giant stick insect species found in Australia’s Wet Tropics named Acrophylla alta can reach 40 centimetres in length and weigh 44 grams

Ancient pots found near Pompeii contain 2500-year-old honey Wed, 30 Jul 2025 14:00:19 +0100 A mysterious residue inside a set of ancient Greek pots from Paestum, Italy, has now been identified as honey thanks to modern chemical analysis

Meltwater bursts through Greenland ice in first-of-a-kind eruption Wed, 30 Jul 2025 11:00:43 +0100 Satellite images reveal how a subglacial lake erupted through the Greenland ice sheet – a phenomenon never witnessed before which could be driven by rising temperatures

Rust-based battery connects to an electricity grid for the first time Wed, 30 Jul 2025 09:00:14 +0100 An iron-air battery in the Netherlands, which can store energy for 100 hours or more to make renewable power sources more consistent, has become the world’s first “rust” battery to connect with an electricity grid

California bets on iron-salt battery power to protect against wildfire Tue, 29 Jul 2025 23:06:52 +0100 A battery made from cheap and non-flammable iron and salt could provide emergency power in one of California’s high wildfire risk zones

Forests with robust animal populations store four times as much carbon Tue, 29 Jul 2025 22:28:24 +0100 An analysis of thousands of forest plots reveals an underappreciated link between animal biodiversity and carbon storage

Solar-powered ambush drones can wait for targets like land mines Tue, 29 Jul 2025 13:02:47 +0100 Russian ambush drones have been seen in Ukraine fitted with cheap solar panels, which enable them to lurk indefinitely, waiting for a target to come near

Steadfast lifestyle changes seem best to improve cognitive decline Mon, 28 Jul 2025 20:00:16 +0100 Healthy habits like exercising and eating well really do seem to improve cognitive decline, particularly if followed in a dedicated way

Puppy and cheetah cub make unlikely pair of step-siblings Mon, 28 Jul 2025 18:01:44 +0100 An Australian zoo has recruited a puppy to help socialise a precious cheetah cub after she had to be separated from her mother, and the two have become firm friends

We may be able to share quantum entanglement nearly infinitely Mon, 28 Jul 2025 18:00:56 +0100 A pair of quantum experimenters that share two entangled particles may be able to pass some of that entanglement to other pairs – and keep sharing it again and again

Signs of alien life on exoplanet K2-18b have all but vanished Mon, 28 Jul 2025 11:00:41 +0100 Earlier this year, astronomers reported possible evidence of life on another planet – but new observations from JWST suggest the apparent biosignature isn’t there after all

A vast bubble around a dying star is too big to comprehend Mon, 28 Jul 2025 12:00:29 +0100 A red supergiant star is surrounded by a sphere of dust and gas so large there is no known explanation for what produced it

We are undergoing unprecedented loss of freshwater across the planet Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:00:46 +0100 Rising temperatures are causing water to evaporate and driving humans to extract more groundwater, which is moving freshwater from the land to the seas and creating a "continental drying" trend

How to spot the Delta Aquariids meteor shower this month Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 A new moon in late July will give us dark skies – perfect for spotting this beautiful meteor shower, says Abigail Beall

What were ancient humans thinking when they began to bury their dead? Wed, 23 Jul 2025 17:00:36 +0100 Claims that a small-brained hominin called Homo naledi buried its dead raise intriguing questions about ancient minds and why we engage in this peculiar practice

The Prestige is just as clever and thrilling 30 years on Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 Rival magicians in Victorian England both claim they can teleport. Is this all illusion, asks Emily H. Wilson, as she explores Christopher Priest’s extraordinary novel, The Prestige

We've discovered a door to a hidden part of reality – what's inside? Mon, 21 Jul 2025 17:00:07 +0100 Physicists would dearly love to find new particles, but there's no sign of them in colliders like the LHC. Now we have found a new way of accessing a tiny slice of reality where they might be hiding

Solar drone with wingspan wider than jumbo jet could fly for months Fri, 25 Jul 2025 23:00:28 +0100 A pioneering solar-powered drone aircraft operated by Skydweller Aero will be used for maritime surveillance

Negative social ties, like frenemies, could be ageing you Fri, 25 Jul 2025 22:00:05 +0100 Having someone in your life who hassles you or causes problems could be adding 2.5 months to your biological age

Neanderthals were probably maggot-munchers, not hyper-carnivores Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:00:53 +0100 It has been claimed Neanderthals ate a huge amount of meat based on isotope ratios in their bones – but the explanation could instead be a diet rich in maggots

Major carbon sink may have vanished for a second year in a row Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:00:12 +0100 Record heat in 2024 caused ecosystems on land to emit nearly as much carbon dioxide as they took out of the atmosphere

Peculiar galaxy seems to contain surprisingly pristine stars Fri, 25 Jul 2025 13:00:51 +0100 Stars uncontaminated by heavier elements are thought to have formed very early in the universe, but a galaxy much later in cosmic history might let us see them for the first time

Triumphant images of women who climbed to new heights Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 Mountaineering Women: Climbing through history tells the stories of more than a dozen female climbers who have conquered the world's greatest peaks

The 25 best fictional robots – according to New Scientist Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:00:26 +0100 From R2D2 to the Terminator via Bender and Johnny-5, we choose our favourite robots from books, films and television series

Fictional female robots have a long history, and it's often quite dark Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 Sierra Greer's novel about a female robot, Annie Bot, just won a prestigious sci-fi prize, the Arthur C Clarke award. But she is hardly the first of her kind, says Sophie Bushwick

Intensely grieving a loved one could shorten a mourner's life Fri, 25 Jul 2025 06:00:34 +0100 Feeling profound grief years after a loved one has died could affect our own longevity

Why Trump's order targeting 'woke' AI may be impossible to follow Thu, 24 Jul 2025 21:00:04 +0100 President Trump signed an executive order requiring companies with US government contracts to make their AI models "free from ideological bias". That could get messy for Big Tech

Record marine heatwaves may signal a permanent shift in the oceans Thu, 24 Jul 2025 20:00:14 +0100 Fierce marine heatwaves were recorded globally in 2023 and 2024, and some researchers now believe they mark the start of a fundamental change with devastating consequences for life on Earth

Why a tech start-up wants to pump your faeces deep underground Thu, 24 Jul 2025 17:00:46 +0100 Start-up Vaulted Deep, which just signed a deal with Microsoft, says storing human waste deep underground can keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and pollutants like forever chemicals out of surface ecosystems

Thousands of seadragons are dying in Australia's toxic algal bloom Thu, 24 Jul 2025 16:00:51 +0100 An algal bloom in South Australia has caused mass deaths of many species since March - now researchers warn that leafy and weedy seadragons could be facing the threat of extinction

Social media is dead – here’s what comes next Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 A new information ecosystem is on the rise, featuring closer connections, cosy media and worker-owned websites, writes Annalee Newitz

Our brain's mitochondria may play a crucial role in the onset of sleep Thu, 24 Jul 2025 14:00:20 +0100 Textbooks say that mitochondria exist to supply cells with energy, but experiments in fruit flies suggest they are also involved in sleep

How regrowing your own teeth could replace dentures and implants Tue, 22 Jul 2025 17:00:26 +0100 Losing a tooth as an adult is par for the course for many of us. The only option to replace them? Artificial substitutes. But an era of regrowing living teeth may now be almost upon us

Anthropic AI goes rogue when trying to run a vending machine Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 Feedback watches with raised eyebrows as Anthropic's AI Claude is given the job of running the company vending machine, and goes a little off the rails

Tapping into the full power of music could transform our lives Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 From reducing pain to relieving stress, the evidence for music's power is strong. Stefan Koelsch says we should use it – now

The time you take an oral exam could affect whether you pass or fail Thu, 24 Jul 2025 06:00:16 +0100 Midday seems to be the optimal time to take an oral exam at university, which could be due to students not generally being early risers

Walking 7000 steps a day seems to be enough to keep us healthy Thu, 24 Jul 2025 00:30:27 +0100 Many people like to check that they have walked 10,000 steps over the course of a day, but falling short of that target still seems to bring serious health benefits

Remarkable set of tracks suggests different dinosaurs herded together Wed, 23 Jul 2025 20:00:32 +0100 Late Cretaceous dinosaur tracks found in Canada might have been made by different species walking together, but the evidence is far from conclusive

The secret to what makes colours pop on dazzling songbirds Wed, 23 Jul 2025 20:00:31 +0100 Hidden layers of colour in the plumage of tanagers and some other songbirds explain what makes them so eye-catching

Homo naledi's burial practices could change what it means to be human Wed, 23 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0100 If ancient humans with brains a third the size of our own buried their dead, as some archaeologists are claiming, then our species may be less special than we thought

Simple skincare routine could stop babies developing eczema Wed, 23 Jul 2025 17:00:49 +0100 Keeping a baby's skin moisturised could significantly reduce their risk of eczema - but perhaps only for babies who aren't genetically at risk

AI helps reconstruct damaged Latin inscriptions from the Roman Empire Wed, 23 Jul 2025 17:00:40 +0100 Google DeepMind and historians created an AI tool called Aeneas that can predict the missing words in Latin inscriptions carved into stone walls and pottery sherds from the ancient Roman Empire.

Spectacular Triassic reptile had an early kind of feathers Wed, 23 Jul 2025 17:00:36 +0100 A 247-million-year-old fossil reptile boasted an enormous crest on its back made from feather-like appendages, long before the appearance of feathered dinosaurs

Gold can be heated to 14 times its melting point without melting Wed, 23 Jul 2025 17:00:18 +0100 With fast heating, sheets of gold can shoot past the theoretical maximum temperature a solid can have before it melts – raising questions about what the true limits are

AI beats goalkeepers at predicting which way penalty taker will shoot Wed, 23 Jul 2025 13:00:16 +0100 By analysing videos of penalty kicks, a deep learning model was able to predict whether a shot would go to the goalkeeper’s left or right with 64 per cent accuracy

We’ve discovered a new kind of magnetism. What can we do with it? Tue, 15 Jul 2025 17:00:14 +0100 Researchers have found the first new type of magnet in nearly a century. Now, these strange "altermagnets" could help us build an entirely new type of computer

Ancient ‘terror birds’ may have been no match for hungry giant caimans Wed, 23 Jul 2025 01:01:08 +0100 A 13-million-year-old leg bone from an enormous flightless bird carries crocodilian tooth marks, showing South America was once a predator-eat-predator world

Cleaner air has increased the number of city heatwaves Tue, 22 Jul 2025 19:00:57 +0100 Reducing air pollution is critical for improving public health, but it has brought big climate trade-offs

DeepMind and OpenAI claim gold in International Mathematical Olympiad Tue, 22 Jul 2025 18:05:51 +0100 Two AI models have achieved gold medal standard for the first time in a prestigious competition for young mathematicians – and their developers claim these AIs could soon crack tough scientific problems

Tiny elusive gecko rediscovered on one of the Galapagos islands Tue, 22 Jul 2025 17:00:27 +0100 Leaf-toed geckos were thought to be locally extinct on Rabida Island, but the diminutive reptiles have re-emerged after a campaign to eliminate invasive rats

The pandemic may have aged our brains even before we caught covid-19 Tue, 22 Jul 2025 17:00:20 +0100 The covid-19 pandemic changed our lives, and the world, in many ways - and now we are starting to understand its wider neurological effects

Ancient animal's fossilised brain prompts rethink of spider evolution Tue, 22 Jul 2025 17:00:05 +0100 A 500-million-year-old sea creature called Mollisonia shared a similar brain structure to modern spiders, suggesting that arachnids first evolved in the sea

Gluten may not actually trigger many irritable bowel syndrome cases Tue, 22 Jul 2025 00:30:50 +0100 People who follow a gluten-free diet in the hope of it calming their irritable bowel syndrome may actually be able to tolerate the common dietary protein